Today was Lazy Day so everyone left camp for the day.  Groups 1&2 went to the bowling alley, groups 3&4 went to the roller rink, and group 5 went to the movies (“Amazing Spiderman 2”).  Everyone had a great day and photos will be posted on CampMinder tomorrow for you to enjoy.  Our photographer is on her day off today so we promise to post them as soon as possible tomorrow.

Tonight is our cookout so we will eat dinner outdoors at the picnic tables.  Evening activity will be a big Counselor Hunt for the entire camp.  The counselors all have to hide and the campers have to find them.  Some staff will be positive points and others will be negative.  The bunk with the most points (positive, of course) will win.

Tomorrow we start up with our regular activities until the end of the session, which is drawing near way too quickly.  Session 2 is over on Tuesday, August 5^th, so be sure to come to your appropriate bus stop if your children are going home that day.  The buses should arrive all of the stops sometime around 11:30am-12:00pm.  More details to come in the next few days.  Until then, ILC U THERE!

Today our regular schedule of activities once again resumed.  It was an amazing 3 days of Color War and Music, the blue team, took home the win.  The grey team’s winning streak has finally come to an end, as have the rumors that the winner of the rope burn loses Color War,…lol!  No matter what team they were on, everyone should be proud of their hard work and fun, exciting memories they created over the course of these past 3 days.

With our regular schedule back in gear, the sun has finally showed its face again.  Although last night was very chilly, the temps have been warming up all day into the low 70’s with partly cloudy skies.

Today our dancing girls went out of camp for a dance competition.  They did very well and placed 2^nd out of about 10 camps total.  Great job to our dancers!  Our 7^th grade boys played soccer here at home, as well.

Lastly, our 9^th grade girls tennis played in the finals here at camp this afternoon they won!  Our girls are the Wayne County champions in their age group!  We’re so proud of them.

Our athletes are now training for an ILC 5K run and Tough Mudder.  This Tough Mudder consists of obstacles all around camp including water and mud.  It should be a fun, exciting challenge for our “tough campers”.

Today’s special feature is the ROPES COURSE & GIANT SWING!  Check out the photos below,…

Tonight’s evening activity is Groups!.  Here’s a list of what each group is doing:

Boys:  Group 1- movie (with girls group 1);  group 2- horseshoes;  group 3- dodgeball;  group 4- pool party (with girls group 4);  group 5- field day (kickball & capture the flag with girls group 5)

Girls:  Group 1- movie (with boys group 1);  group 2- gaga;  group 3- campfire;  group 4- pool party (with boys group 4);  group 5- field day (kickball and capture the flag with boys group 5)

That’s about it for now  Tomorrow is Lazy Day so the kids are all excited for LTB tonight.  I’ll fill you in on our Lazy Day out of camp trips tomorrow.  Until then, ILC U THERE!

MUSIC!  The Blue Team!  Congrats to everyone who worked hard- the officers, counselors, and campers- to make this a fantastic Color War for all.  The Grey Team winning streak has finally ended.  (Lol!)  Now back to our regular schedule of activities once again.  More to come later today,…

Today is the 3^rd and final day of Color War.  It’s been a fierce but friendly 3 days of competition between Music and the Movies.  Although the Movies are still in the lead, anything can happen by tonight at the Sing.  The scores are close so whichever team puts together a better Sing will most likely win Color War.  More about the Sing later in this blog…

Last night a cold front came through camp and boy oh boy was it a chilly night.  The overnight temps were in the 50’s so our campers bundled up to stay warm in their bunks.  Today started out cold and cloudy with the sun working hard to peep its head out here and there.  While mostly cloudy all day, the temps hit close to 70 degrees, perfect for our Apache Relay this afternoon.

But first, back to last night,…the winner of Unique was the Grey Movies.  Movies finally won a big event!  Movies also won overall for the 2^nd day’s decorum points.  Going into the 3^rd day of Color War in the morning, Music was still leading by 495 points.

This morning we had team meetings and then went into the last day of sports.  Here’s a list of the sports the kids played in different groups:  dodgeball, tchoukball, gaga, soccer, basketball, softball, touch football, water basketball, and SCB (snatch club basketball which is a combo of soccer, kickball, basketball, and steal the bacon).  The overall winner of the sports this morning was Grey Movies.

After lunch this afternoon we had team meetings and then our big Apache Relay.  The apache takes several hours and involves a few hundred campers on each team.  They run all over camp and tag in each department to do multiple events before tagging to then run to a different department to perform more events.  The apache is a big camp tradition and involves lots of fun tasks such as eating saltine crackers and whistling Yankee Doodle Dandy, running around the baseball field bases backwards, singing the camp alma mater over the PA system, etc.  Our staff has some difficult tasks too, such as doing 100 push-ups and 100 sit-ups (different staff members do each, but of course).  The apache finally ends with everyone on the gym bleachers watching a camper from each team make a half court basketball shot.  Today the teams were neck in neck until the end and it was a very close apache.  Music beat Movies by only about a minute in total.  At this point Blue Music is still in the lead by a little over 400 points.  To see photos from today just check out our daily summer photos via CampMinder.

Color War closes tonight with our annual Sing.  Each team gets judged by their creative entrance into the theater.  They then take turns performing a March/Fight song, a Comedy song, a Skit, an Alma Mater song, and then they present their team’s Plaque.  The entire night is very sweet and somber as Color War comes to an end.  Everyone hugs, some cry, and we play the camp Alma Mater so everyone can come together and sing.  Patrick Dyer, our video program director, writes a song every summer with a different theme.  He creates slideshow along with the song for the camp to enjoy watching.  This summer, Patrick’s song will be about the color war teams.

And finally, once the scores are all tallied up, Trip stands on the theater stage and announces the winner of the Sing and of Color War overall.  The winning team will just up and scream and go crazy with excitement.  The other team will be sad for a moment but they’ll quickly get over it by the time they head to canteen for junk food (Lol!).  Since this blog is being posted prior to Sing, tomorrow morning I will post the winner for all of you.  Until then, ILC U THERE!

Happy 2^nd day of Color War!  Even though the weather hasn’t been ideal, our Movies & Music kids are storming through it (no pun intended) and rocking on!  We woke up to some rain that finished before breakfast, only to return in misty form during our morning Track & Field competition.  The rain returned after lunch during rest hour and team meetings.  It was on and off for the remainder of the day affecting some of the later afternoon sports.

Last night was a fantastic Rope Burn!  Both teams built professional-like fires in only a few minutes time.  Our campers cheered on as the fires rose higher towards the ropes.  The ropes each engulfed the flames until they eventually broke in half.  It was a tight race but someone had to win.  That winner of the Rope Burn was Blue Music!  Since the time differential was only about 4 minutes (the first rope broke in over 21 minutes), the points were only a different of 175 to Music and 125 to Movies.  Below are some photos of the Rope Burn festivities.

At the end of each day, DECORUM points are handed out to the team that the judges feels did a better job in a wide variety of things:  cheering, dressing up, banners, sportsmanship, etc.  Each judge hands in their decorum points to Trip, the man in charge of Color War.  Trip tallied up last night’s decorum points and the winner was Grey Movies!

This morning was the Track & Field and Tug O’ War.  The Track & Field events were for a variety of groups in each of the following categories:  softball toss, sprint, baton relay, medley relay (run, bear crawl, crab walk, back pedal, & cartwheel), long jump, progressive relay, off-road run, and punt, pass, & kick.  Each group then competed against one another in a big Tug O’ War.  The winner of the Track Meet was Music and the winner of Tug O’ War was also Music.

Another activity that lasts anywhere from 1 hour to 3 days is the “Find the Hatchet” event.  Trip hides the hatchet somewhere in camp and campers (who must be accompanied by a counselor) search camp high and low throughout looking for it.  Trip gives out a clue each day and to be honest, these clues are difficult to solve.  Once the hatchet is found then the clues make sense.  Today Blue Music found the hatchet in the tall grass on the soccer field.  Each day the points decrease so Music received the 2^nd day’s worth of points for it.  Congrats to Music for finding the hatchet!

After lunch we had rest hour and then team meetings.  After the meetings was snack break and then Battle of the Bands.  This battle was an enjoyable event to watch.  Our campers (& staff) played a variety of instruments and each group had a separate battle against one another.  Following Battle of the Band was today’s Sports.  Due to rain, they had to improvise and do a variety of different activities instead of the outdoor sports.  It still went well and the children had fun.

Tonight’s evening activity is Unique in the gym.  Unique is a trivia game where campers from each group from each team head to a table with light switches and are asked trivia questions.  When they know the answer they flip the switch and their lightbulb illuminates.  The first camper to flip the switch gets to answer the question.  Correct answers gain points for the team.  The trivia is a variety of topics ranging from camp trivia to music trivia to movies trivia.

Tomorrow I will reveal the winner of Unique, as well as the winner of the daily decorum points.  Until then, we’ll keep the Color War spirit alive and of course, ILC U THERE!

With Visiting Day behind us, Island Lake is all about Color War for these next 3 days.  Movies vs. Music has proven to be a great theme thus far with both teams making fantastic use of their team names.  Campers and staff are all about Color War right now and the energy is running high.

This morning we had team meetings and then sports for all of the age groups.  With lots of energy and excitement for Color War the kids played the following:  steal the bacon, dodgeball, gaga, soccer, ultimate Frisbee, softball, touch football, water basketball, hockey, volleyball, and chopped (cooking).  The winner of the sports was Blue Music.

This sunny afternoon we hosted the Swim Meet down by the swimming pool and the lake.  A variety of groups participated in the following on the lake:  canoe relay, kayak relay, standup paddle board, peddle boat relay, log rolling, freestyle relay, medley relay, kickboard relay, freestyle relay, sweat suit relay, greased watermelon, & swim to the island and back.

Here’s a list of activities that took place in the swimming pool:  penny fetch, water basketball, medley relay, kickboard relay, paddleboard relay, & freestyle relay.  The winner of the swim meet was Grey Movies.

After the swim meet ended we had a snack break at the bunks and then team meetings.  After the meetings and before dinner we then had a six period basketball game for our each group and then our staff to compete in.  The rest of the camp watched and cheered their team on to victory.  The overall winner of the basketball game was Blue Music.

Below are some photos from Color War, first when we broke it on Friday night, and the rest are from today.  For more photos, please view our daily summer photos through CampMinder.

Tonight’s evening activity is the Rope Burn for Color War.  The camp will head to the rope burn pitch down by the waterski lake.  Our campers will cheer our staff on as they build fires under highly hung ropes in attempt to see who can burn the rope in half first.  I’ll announce the winner of the rope burn in tomorrow’s blog.  Until then, ILC U THERE!

We hope you all had a WONDERFUL Visiting Day today here at ILC!  Lots of parents, grandparents, siblings, and more were here to spend the day with their campers.  It was a fantastic experience for everyone who joined us today.

Tonight’s evening activity is Squeaky Clean!  They’re a rock and roll band who performs here at camp every summer on the night of Visiting Day.  Squeaky Clean covers classic rock and roll oldies but goodies such as “Stop In the Name of Love”.  We’re excited to sing and dance along with them tonight in the gym.  Canteen will be closed after evening activity since there is soooooo much junk food in the bunks right now, but curfews are regular time.

Tomorrow is our first day of Color War!  Woohoo!  For the next 3 days Island Lake will be all about Movies vs. Music.  Looking forward to it!

Again, we hope you all had a fantastic day here at camp today! Until tomorrow when Color War begins, ILC U THERE!

Happy almost…drum roll please…happy almost Visiting Day?  Holy cow, how did this time of the summer sneak up on us so fast?  We’ve been preparing for this very special day for a long time now and we anticipate that it will be a fantastic day for all.  Please peruse yesterday’s blog for more details about tomorrow’s festivities.

For now, back to today.  Today was yet, say it with me everybody…today was yet another beautiful day in Starrucca, PA!  Temps were in the upper 70’s to low 80’s with hardly any humidity to speak of.  It was the perfect day for our 4^th & 5^th grade girls basketball team to come in 2^nd place in a big tournament out of camp.  You go girls!!!  Our 8^th & 9^th grade girls lacrosse team also played a tough game out of camp.

Today we hosted our in camp Improv Tournament finals.  We’re happy to report that the winners were…are you ready for this?  You’re going to love the name of this team.  Here we go…the winners were “The Jalapeño Smugglers (Hold the Spicy)”.  As you can see, our campers make up their own team names, parentheses included and all.  Those on this winning team were none other but Dustin Stabinski, Ben Weber, Paige Wasserman, and Lauren Mensch.  Good job you guys!  We hear that all of our improv teams of all ages, boys and girls, had a blast!

Today’s special feature is MAGIC!  Enjoy these photos of card magic, indoors and outdoors.

Tonight, at dinner, bunk plaques were presented for our Bunk Cup tournament.  We also enjoyed a “dance off” between boys bunk 21 and girls bunk 22.  It was pretty hysterical and the entire camp cheered these bunks on.  Ending this fun-to-watch dance off was the ILC chant of “BOYS ARE BETTER!”, only to be outdone by “GIRLS ARE BETTER!”  This has become a good ol’fun loving ILC tradition.

Tonight’s evening activity is everybody’s favorite hypnotist, Brad Henderson!  Right now our campers and staff are watching Brad hypnotize around 20 of our awesome counselors.  Since there’s a big surprise at the end (wink wink) and I can’t tell you what it is because it’s just that big of a surprise (wink wink), I’m going to end this blog for now.

More info to come your way as events occur in real time here at ILC (whoops, did I just throw in a “24” reference?).  Until tomorrow, when we’ll see all of your smiling faces bright and early for our annual Island Lake Visiting Day,…ILC U THERE!

Today was Lazy Day so our kids all went out of camp after our big mid-morning brunch.  The skies are party cloudy and the temps cooled off a great deal from yesterday to the low to mid 70’s.  I spoke too soon when I posted yesterday’s blog because more rain came through at dinnertime.  Some of our evening activities got changed at the last moment as they went indoors.

For today’s Lazy Day, boys and girls groups 1&2 went to Skate Estate.  They had roller skating, rollerblading, waterslides, miniature golf,  arcade games, and laser tag there.  Boys and girls groups 3&4 went to see The Amazing Spiderman 2.  Boys and girls group 5 went to the bowling alley where they bowled and played arcade games.  And of course, each activity has such great gourmet food that the kids all purchase with their extra spending money.

Saturday is approaching fast and with that comes our one and only annual Island Lake Visiting Day!  (Cheers in the background,…woohoo,…yay!)  We know you’re excited to come up to camp to live out your youth in 1 day’s time.  We’re excited to have you join us and see your children.  We’ll have lots of activities and exhibits going on all day, as well as a huge lunch buffet.  If you prefer, you can take your children out of camp for the day.

We know you all plan to bring lots of food and junk to shower your children with affection, so please keep in mind that we discard all of the food 2 days later.  Do not bring so much that your children have to throw away lots of great homemade brownies, cookies, bagged chips, chocolate, grandma’s secret recipes, etc.  We truly hate to waste food, so please don’t shlep too much up here.

Please refrain from bringing bottled water, too.  We have well water here at camp that is just as good, or even better than, bottled water.  Bottled water will also be discarded so please save yourself the muscular strength (not to mention soreness) of carrying these heavy items into camp.

Visiting Day hours are from 9:30-3:30.  If you leave camp for the day, please bring your children back on time for our other annual big, huge, extravagant Water Fight!  Parents are fair game if they’re still here for the water fight so just remember; quick and speedy goodbyes are easier on your children.  We expect that some campers will be in tears so our staff will be around to help them through what’s usually just a short moment of sadness.  The water fight is a great distraction to get children through their difficult goodbyes.  Please just work with us and know your children are in great hands here at camp.

Tonight’s dinner was a COOKOUT, so today’s special feature is just that, the cookout!

Evening activity for tonight is GROUPS!  Here’s the ol’ run down:

Boys:  Groups 1&2- pool party with the girls;  Group 3- capture the flag;  Group 4&5- movie

Girls:  Groups 1&2- pool party with the boys;  Group 3- movie;  Groups 4&5- messy twister with paint (huge life size twister board- fun for multiple bunks at once)

Have a great night and until tomorrow, ILC U THERE!

Happy Wednesday everyone!  Can you believe that Visiting Day is only 3 days away?  Where did the summer go?  It’s flying by way too fast.  Guess that’s what happens when you’re having fun.

Speaking of fun, last night’s evening activity was amazing!  The whole camp was in the theater and we started Miss ILC.  All of the male contestants (dressed as women) did a group dance to “Single Ladies”.  At the end of their dance they all then pointed to the curtains to bring out the judges and who was standing there when the curtains opened?  No other than the Revival Night henchmen!  The kids all screamed and ran out of the theater to the hill on the lake for the start of their favorite evening activity.  When Revival was over, a gunshot sounded off in the air, followed by a second.  Well, by that point about 50 children started running up to the gym, thinking that Color War was starting.  They were in for a shock when we called them back down to the lake and informed them that it was a fake break.  We’ve been doing fake breaks for days now, which has been fun as we’re teasing the kids about the start of Color War.

Last night was ETB, Early to Bed.  We had our staff meeting during rest hour while our campers were SUPPOSED to be writing letters home to all of you moms and dads.  No promises of course since you’ll be here in 3 days, but we hope they all wrote home to you.  Tonight is LTB, Late to Bed, since tomorrow is our Lazy Day.  Groups 1&2 (boys & girls) are going to Skate Estate roller rink in Binghamton, which also has miniature golf, waterslides, arcade games, and laser tag.  Groups 3&4 (boys & girls) are going to see the movie, The Amazing Spiderman 2 locally here in Deposit, NY.  Group 5 (boys & girls) is going to the bowling alley in Binghamton.  Should be lots of fun and we’ll try to remember to bring our cameras to post photos on our daily photos sight.

Today was our 2nd session tubing trip down the Delaware River.  It was the perfect weather for a lazy river stroll with temperatures in the low 80’s and the sun shining strong.  This morning we also hosted a boys 5^th grade baseball game here at camp.  Although they didn’t win, they played an amazing game of ball.  This afternoon we got hit with some rain that lasted only a short time.

Tonight’s evening activity is Groups!  Here’s a breakdown of what everyone is doing:

Boys:  Group 1- kong pong;  Group 2- nature hike on a pioneering trail;  Group 3- gaga;  Group 4- capture the flag;  Group 5- dodgeball

Girls:  Group 1- friendship bracelets;  Group 2- fab fun fair;  Group 3- aqua aerobics;  Group 4- movie & nails night;  Group 5- movie & popcorn night

Today’s special feature, SCIENCE, COOKING, & VIDEO!

3 more days until we see all of your smiling faces here at camp!  Until then, ILC U THERE!